Another welcome surprise from an unexpected classic. However, it comes just short of being a great film.
First off, there is a vast cast of characters, yet somehow they are pretty well balanced for a film with a running time of just over an hour. While taking more time to flesh out some characters a la Seven Samurai would have made this more complete, it would have diminished the point of the film. Like most great westerns, this is less about the characters, and more about why they've been put in front of us (a welcome change from hiring who's hot in hollywood nowadays). While the plot itself wasn't all that original (should we take the law into our own hands), the places it takes us are unexpected, thrilling, and sometimes frightening.
The pacing is great, and for a short movie, it takes you to extremely different places for each act. Wellman makes a lot good decisions as director, and a handful of great ones. However, the greatness comes too far into the movie for me to classify this as an example of amazing directing. It's almost like he directed the first two acts to appeal to a broader audience, then directed the third act for aficionados who appreciate everything about a film that makes it great.
1 / 2 directing & technical aspect
1 / 2 story
1 / 1 acting
1 / 1 pacing
1 / 1 dialogue
1 / 1 living up to its genre
0 / 1 originality
1 / 1 lasting ability to make you think
.5 / 0 miscellaneous +/- point
7.5 out of 10
Denis Villenueve. A solid lineup. A different take on first contact. I loved Sicario but went in expecting a cerebral epic sci-fi.
That was a mistake.
Good things:
- Some really nice visual scenes
- Interesting aliens Calligraphy aliens!
- Clear theme of communication is omnipresent
- A neat score that might be awesome in a different movie
Bad things:
- The acting
- The lack of emotional reaction to ALIENS! The students asking to turn on the TV, all of the main characters
- Lack of useful characters Only the aliens and Louise actually did anything the entire movie.
- Supporting characters are very stupid in an attempt to foil the main character slightly
- Very clumsy exposition. Genre-typical news reports, voice-overs, dumb characters asking stupid questions.
- Very slow pacing. This worked in parts of Sicario, but didn't work in this movie because there was no tension. The main characters never seemed remotely threatened.
- Lousie showing up at school thinking everyone will be there after aliens arrive and there's a state of emergency
- Why can't you translate alien language like you can translate Farsi. This is a paraphrase but in the spirit of what Colonel Weber was saying.
- Useless love interest when the costars have no chemistry.
- Ultrasecure military base lets someone steal a ton of explosives and put it in an ALIEN SPACECRAFT without anyone noticing.
- Many unbelievable plot points
- Poor dialogue Let's make a baby - real quote
- Poor handling of the major plot points Looking through time seems to undermine the fact that the aliens need help. Why did one have to die if they could see the future? Why did only one die when they were right next to each other?
- Very heavy handed moral messaging that didn't align with the rest of the movie.
- Why couldn't Ian also see into the future as he studied the language, or any of the others?
Overall extremely disappointing. I'm honestly surprised critics or general moviegoers like this. The premise was very good. It's a real shame the execution failed so miserably.
I don't believe I've ever been so captivated by such a deeply flawed movie as I am with Arrival. What others have written about it—with far more insight than I could—is all too true, namely that the acting is hollow at best and the plot is nothing so much as a severely frayed thread in danger of completely unraveling. It's an utter waste of one of the most creative iterations of extra-terrestrial contact in cinematic history. And yet, despite all of these reasons to dismiss this lamentable execution of the cinematic arts, I can't help but admit…I love it.
When you strip away all of the trappings and examine this movie solely for the essential story being told, you are privy to something very profound, and genuinely uplifting: how humanity's manifold foibles, when put together, might just be redeeming after all. Through the protagonist, Louise, we see the unfolding of a series of personal tragedies and yet her response to them is tempered with unflinching dedication to the accomplishment of something worthwhile, and therein she finds her purpose. At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, I found in this story elements of the best of Disney's heroes, Shakespeare's tragic rulers, and religious texts' unwavering commitment to the belief that there is no such thing as a meaningless sacrifice. While they all could've been done greater justice, I believe their coexistence here is cause to sit up, take note, and eschew any demands for a greater polish and fidelity to realism.
I came away with a greater knowledge of myself and a more forgiving opinion of our species as a whole, and for both of those I am grateful beyond measure. Perhaps in time I'll come to see that the imperfections in its presentation actually work to clarify some or all of these laudable aspects of the narrative,...or perhaps the magic will fade under the weight of familiarity and I'll be unable to defend it again as I have here now. Either way, the two hours I devoted to watching this movie for the first time are ones that I won't ever regret, and perhaps that's the best praise any artistic work can receive, especially in light of this particular story.
Is only me who thinks a brilliant mind would never use only cards on a access control system?
Despite not being Hughes' finest movie, Uncle Buck is still a funny, endearing and ultimately moving family movie. I slightly prefer John Candy in the hysterical Planes, Trains and Automobiles, but his performance here exudes once again a charm and love that are impossible to resist.
This should cool off the Rambo wannabes. The opening beach assault sequences were the most violent, realistic, and upsetting filming I've ever seen; looked as though the thing was actual combat footage. The shushing noises of rounds cutting through the air was the most chilling part of all. Perfect portrayal of the insane stupidity of war and the anguish of all who enter this most foolish of enterprises. A must see.
Easily one of the most poignant and thought-provoking movies I've ever seen. It let me to examine myself in ways I never had before, and I hope someday to see the play it's adapted from.
I don't think people are really appreciating what this movie offers. It's simple and clear, yet full of feeling. A beautiful little film to watch, it really touches those who are going through the same stuff.
― I'd like an omelet, plain, and a chicken salad sandwich on wheat toast, no mayonnaise, no butter, no lettuce. And a cup of coffee.
― A #2, chicken salad sand. Hold the butter, the lettuce, the mayonnaise, and a cup of coffee. Anything else?
― Yeah, now all you have to do is hold the chicken, bring me the toast, give me a check for the chicken salad sandwich, and you haven't broken any rules.
― You want me to hold the chicken, huh?
― I want you to hold it between your knees.
#Classic
Contains major spoilers !!!!!
Huge and utterly dissapointing. After TFA I said this movie would make or break the story. For me it broke.
Where to begin? Let´s start with my biggest problem.
After that rebel cruisers bridge was hit and Leia was thrown into space we saw her drifting in the cold empty vacuum of space. This was a powerful scene and I had tears welling up in my eyes thinking that would be a great ending for the character dying how she always lived. Fighting. I did not realise, or care, that it would have been a huge coincidence had they written this scene at that point not knowing Carrie would pass away. But as I said powerful scene. And then she opens her eyes and floated back into the ship still beeing alive. At that point I was seriously considering leaving the cinema. It´s scifi but, please, without as much as a hint of an explanation that is just awful writing. It is Disney all over it. Anyway I stayed and watched the rest but in general I was done with the movie.
There are tons of other things I didn´t like.
way to much unnessesary and stupid humor. Most of the time it does not fit and just destroys scenes. Holding for General Hux - that might have been OK once but two or three times it just becomes goofy. And there is more of this througout the movie.
the writing was all over the place. So much things going on that do little to nothing for the general plot and just add playtime. Like that whole thing with the codebreaker, going to the casino. Just sugarcoating CGI.
and speaking of playtime - way too long. About five times towards the end I thought it was over. It could have ended when the reached the rebel base- no let´s add another battle. When they realised they where trapped. With Luke going out to face Kylo. At some point I would have been OK with the movie ending with the First Order defeating the rebels, everyone dying, and the franchise done with. But of course that is not happening and the movie ends.....no, just show us a kid with a broom looking at the stars and indicate he could be the hero of a future movie.
in many ways the continuation of storylines is not satisfiying. They introduce Snoke in the first movie without an explanation who he is, where he comes from and how he got there. Would have been OK, could have done later. So now he´s dead without so much as a fight and there are questions left to be answered.
what about Rey ? Are we really to believe her parents were some drunk and drifting scavengers that sold her for money like Ren said ? That would be very stupid because how in the universe could she master the Force in ways even the best Jedis or Sith couldn´t without as much as years of training. Another void in the storytelling.
too many, shall I call them, homage scenes ? A lot of times I felt I had already seen this movie. The scene in the throne room f.e. Snoke = Emperor, Rey = Luke, Ben = Vader, the destruction of the rebel fleet playing in the background and the Ben killing Snoke is like Vader killing the Emperor. I know that was said about TFA as well but I feel it´s much worse here. The Battle of Hoth reviseted would be another thing where they re-did some scenes to a T. All that was left was tow cables.
Those are just some examples of the things I disliked and maybe there could be satisfactory explanation later. There is a lot more but it would take too much time to write it down. But I doubt I will go to the cinema for the next one.
To be fair there where some positives in this movie.
I liked the scenes with Rey and Luke althought they did not really lead anywhere. But some nice insights into Lukes story after ROTJ.
The conversations between Kylo and Rey where very interesting and I thought there was really potential to steer the story to something new and exciting. Not happening.
So overall I was not satisfied. I really like TFA, it built some expectations that where all crushed with this. As far as I am concerned I am done with this new story. I am not not very eager to find out what else the canibalise and how they try to write themselves out of this. There is nothing left.
This is my view of the movie. If you liked it I´m happy for you.
May the Force be with us. Always.
Another excellent Tarantino film. It keeps you on hold until the end. Amazing work in all aspects film.
A Mesmerizing masterpiece. I've seen this film and part one several times, and again just now. I don't compare this to part one, being that it's the continuation of one long movie. This film transcends the martial arts / Kung Fu genre in ways never done before and with an unforgettable uniqueness. When I think of what I consider to be Tarantino's best films/screenplays--The Kill Bill saga is in my top three. I can't write a review because too many have already been written; however, This is a must see extravaganza of violence, martial arts, incredible characters with rich development, and of course the fantastic dialogue which Tarantino seems to be unequaled in creating. Uma Thurman was a freaking beast and should've gotten an Oscar for best actress. We know that would never happen even though it would've been great if the world were a bit cooler and open minded. I love this film.
Significantly more balanced between its stylish idiosyncrasies and emotional undercurrents than Vol. 1, injecting the Bride with a fierce matriarchal stimulus, but its wonky structure still confines it from reaching narrative transcendence.
A masterful movie that is quite unlike anything else Tarantino has made, all while being a Tarantino style movie.
The movie might be showing its age, or maybe I'm showing mine. The structure just felt off. The pacing was much too slow until the last quarter. There's something grating about Maverick's character—there's supposed to be, but I couldn't really find anything to like about him. And of course the romance is entirely unnecessary, but that's been a Hollywood problem since long before this movie (and still is).
Top Gun is a movie that is full of cliché with a plot that follows along the lines of a blueprint that is typical for similar movies of that time. It was a movie for the MTV generation with lots of rock music. This wasn´t about the story. Teenage boys wanted to be Maverick and the girls fancied the love story (OK, probably not all of them but a lot)
It still can be an entertaining movie today if you keep that in mind. Just tune down the cheesy stuff. Enjoy the flight scenes, the soundtrack is still great and produced a lot of classic tunes.
The acting is impeccable and the cinematography and directing is truly memorising. However it all feels wasted on such a long, overdrawn and predictable story line. I found myself waiting for it all to end, which it does eventually, just how you thought it would.
I really dont understand why people are hyping this movie so much. Its way too long, has lotsa logic mistakes and on top of it all, this thing cost 135 million dollars to make? Wow. Ridiculous. Great acting by Tom Hardy, average acting by Leo DiCaprio. You could feel he just did something like this to win the Oscar finally, after pretty much every other type of story and film didnt bring him the desired trophy...
3.75/5. I walked out of this one saying to my friends, "that was pretty good for a 10 hour film." It was a long film that wanted you to feel the length. At times, that made it feel appropriately epic, but at others that made it feel like it was alternatively being indulgent or spinning its wheels. The Revenant started strong and ended fairly strong, but had a lot of fat in the middle.
But if there's one thing it deserves credit for, it's the cinematography and production. There are so many beautiful images throughout the film, whether it be a swooping shot of a snow-covered vista, or the slow lurch of the camera as it follows Glass crawling across the ground, or the Saving Private Ryan-esque battle sequence near the beginning of the film. It was visually arresting from the word go, even if the story and pacing couldn't always keep up.
Oddly enough, the film I found myself thinking about while watching The Revenant was Mad Max: Fury Road. Both feature a fairly straightforward narrative intended to impart broad themes, but make their bones with their visual storytelling and sensibilities, bolstered by strong individual performances that vary from the depictions of quiet strength to bombast. To that end, both films eschew exposition and narrative complexity in a bid to allow the images and the performances to convey the story.
There are certainly parallels between DiCaprio in The Revenant and Hardy in Mad Max, both playing largely silent, wounded animals who are haunted by their pasts. And the key feature in each is the aesthetic choices made by the folks behind the films, where both Miller and Inarritu communicate their themes most forcefully in the visuals they craft rather than dialogue, despite notable moments in both films where the characters' lines hit the major ideas of the film in a less-than-subtle manner. There are obviously significant distinctions between the two films in areas like tone and pacing, and Inarritu and Miller have different goals and styles, but they go about accomplishing and employing them in a strikingly similar fashion.
That said, I wasn't particularly blown away by DiCaprio's performance here. It was good, there's no question, but I've more or less had my fill of DiCaprio playing these intense, perpetually perturbed men with something in their past gnawing on them. He knows how to play those notes well, but I'm just kind of inured to it at this point. By the same token, the film includes too many vignettes of Glass's survival, with many of them being too long as well. Many did little to advance the narrative or the character (the big exception being Glass and his Pawnee companion catching snowflakes in one of the film's most endearing moment), which is fine in small doses. Giving the audience a chance to just spend time with a character can work toward making them invested in his fate when the time for the narrative fireworks come. But a lot of those scenes in The Revenant felt like indulgence or even just fumfering around. They were a part of the film that cried out for a montage that never came.
Hardy, on the other hand, does a fantastic job at Fitzgerald, who sells the character's attitude and role in the story almost from the minute he's on the screen, and makes Fitzgerald's nigh-heartless, mercenary pragmatism and his open racism feel lived-in and true to the character from the getgo.
Inarrito spends a lot of time seizing on a fairly simple theme, represented with his wind and tree metaphor, and building up an elaborate, somewhat pretentious infrastructure around it. There's value in simplicity in story and theme at times, but it feels like he's trying to take something straightforward and telescope it out to unsupportable complexity and weight here, and the film suffers for it.
Overall it's a generally good, but rarely great movie, with some serious and stultifying missteps in its lengthy, middle act. It's consistently a feast for the eyes, and the visual storytelling is close to impeccable, but the ideas involved are fairly shallow and trumped up, and the performances can only do so much to make up for its flaws.
A deary long movie that was totally and utterly implausible. Nobody on earth can survive swimming in freezing water in the middle of winter, get out soaking wet and immediately light a fire.
Frontiersman has a comically shit year against an overwhelmingly beautiful backdrop.
The Oscar for Leo was well earned, as are the ones for directing and camera. Yet it isn´t among the best pictures I´ve seen. It´s not boring but it´s very slow paced with very little dialogue over long stretches. The whole tension comes from the wait for Glass to take his revenge on Fitzgerald but since you already know that will happen it isn´t much tension in the first place. And the whole side story with the indians is almost neglectable. Half an hour less might not have been a bad thing.
first 40 mins are great and then .....
I had to stop watching after an hour - the impeccable acting and superb cinematography doesn't cover for the overdrawn and predictable synopsis nor does it make up for the fact that I couldn't take any more of it. I kept asking myself "so what?"
I'm really sick of the whole "porn is evuuuuhl" angle that this film was pursuing. All I saw was a bunch of nice but not very smart girls making some bad decisions and then blaming everybody but themselves afterwards - one went as far as to compare herself to a rape victim because she voluntarily took part in a scene she later regretted.
I got mad more at the weak support networks those girls had than the porn industry, the worst people in the whole film were one girl's family and friends - her obese mother and "music producer"(read: umemployed) boyfriend making her feel like shit and pressuring her into stopping her career, essentially calling her a prostitute as insult and her boyfriend not even defending her when people at a university party were making fun of her and looking up her porn.
This film glossed over some real questionable practices in porn and instead just highlighted that yes, a lot of 18 to 25 year old girls make mistakes and don't think things through. Hell, one of them thought she couldn't get pregnant if guys pulled out.
I feel like this documentary had all the opportunities to dig deeper into several issues and it never did. It was very nice to hear the stories of these women, and the movie was pretty well made, but it did little beyond illustrating what everyone already expected.
Adam comes out to his friends and family, this movie shows how everybody reacts to it differently and how they "handle" it.
I had a great laugh watching the trailer, and that enjoyment stayed throughout the whole movie. I really enjoyed it. Evan Todd did an amazing job and he made everything feel very "safe" of some sort. I liked seeing every character their reactions because they all reacted so differently. I would describe this movie as a "feel good" movie, but one with a messages and I don't think you see that very often. It worked out great. They cover quite a serious subject, but they make it all feel rather "light". I hope to see more movies like these. They did a great casting for this movie, and I think that was a big plus to the story.
Funny and relatable story of a man coming out to his family and friends. Doesn't stint on the drama but doesn't dwell on it either. Very enjoyable.
[8.2/10] It’s easy to become desensitized to violence on the screen. Superheroes can pummel hordes of faceless bad guys, or each other. Jedi can leap into lightsaber fights from hear to the edge of the galaxy. And slapstick comedy can turn events that would cause untold pain in real life into cartoony hilarity.
But we don’t tend to think about when people become desensitized to violence not because of the images they’ve seen or the context in which they’re presented, but rather because it’s an everyday part of their lives, something they don’t enjoy or relish, but no more question or find out of the ordinary than they would bad weather.
I, Tonya, then, is a film about what it is to expect abuse in your life, both physical and emotional, to the point that you no longer question it, or even fully recognize it. It depicts Tonya Harding as someone who has heard so many times that she doesn’t measure up, that she isn’t good enough, that she’ll never amount to anything (often with physical reminders to accentuate these put downs) that she accepts any abuse in exchange for even the prospect that someone will appreciate her, will respect her, will love her.
The most devastating line in film comes in one of the montages about the early tumult in the marriage between Tonya and her husband Jeff, where she rationalizes his domestic violence away by reasoning, “My mom loves me, and she hits me.” It’s a sad, but understandable equivalence from someone who’s known nothing else, going from one abusive family relationship to another.
The grand achievement of the film is the way that it manages to approach these dark events in a manner that’s both incisive and funny. It doesn’t skimp on the ridiculousness of the world of professional figure skating, or on the shaggier side of this collection of nudniks each trying to conquer the world in their own way, but it doesn’t shy away from or compartmentalize the darker underbelly of all that lunacy either.
Part of what makes it stomachable is that we get most of the film in the form of cobbled-together recollections from Tonya and the other players, with plenty of fourth wall-breaking commentary and voice over to add a layer of cutting or knowing commentary onto these events. That device allows the film to be at a remove when it needs to, giving the audience a chance to reflect on what’s happening rather than forced to be a part of it.
But when we do feel it, it’s through Tonya’s eyes, and for Tonya, violence, disappointment, and shaming are a matter of fact thing. That’s the soft tragedy that winds its way through the film. Horrid incident after horrid incident befalls Tonya, but she seems to take it in stride, because it’s all she’s ever known, until those moments accumulate and accumulate until they’ve taken away the thing she cares most about, the thing that gave her a chance to escape that life.
That shame is personified by Tonya’s mother, LaVona, a profane battleaxe who browbeats her preternaturally talented daughter deeper and deeper into the sport. It’s a powerhouse performance from the inimitable Allison Janney, and character aided both by Janney’s stellar acting and some choice moments in the script.
It would be easy to make LaVona a pure monster, with how she degrades her daughter at every turn and resorts to physical violence and cruel stunts when she doesn’t get her way. But in scenes where she tells Tonya that she sacrificed their relationship to make Tonya great, she becomes comprehensible, though not laudable, as all great villains should be. And there’s that twinkle in Janney’s eye, that sincerity she can muster, that gives the audience just enough to wonder if LaVona means it when she tells her daughter that she’s on her side, even when she’s surreptitiously recording her in search of a scoop.
That moment is a the whole film in microcosm, a story of people seeming to welcome Tonya, to give her the attention and affection she hopes for, only to tear it away from her. The film’s nod to this is a tad overwritten, but those are also the terms in which it interrogates celebrity. Beyond LaVona, beyond Jeff, Tonya wants to be embraced by the world, and for one shining moment, her talent makes her the darling she always wanted to be.
But then, the scandal hits. An incident she may or may not have been involved with comes to consume her career and reputation, and after coming so close, after having her all-too-brief moment in the sun, she becomes a laughing stock and a punching bag, in a country of late night comedians and tabloid headline writers who help set the stage for people to either groan or titter when hearing her name. The world acts as her mother and husband did, however unwittingly, with her desperate for approval and appreciation, and chasing it until she’s smacked down into her place once more.
That sense of Tonya having overstepped her bounds is also a palpable theme in the film. There’s a steady sense of how a combination of classism and sexism hindered her at every turn. Skating is (or at least was) a sport where women were expected to act a certain way, where competitors were expected to uphold a certain spirit of grace and genteelity. Tonya met none of those criteria. She was more athletic than graceful, a woman of poverty rather than refinement, and the way the staid gatekeepers refused to let her in for this is one more misfortune visited upon her.
This all makes I, Tonya sound far more grim that it is. There is a Coen Bros. quality to the film, where a bunch of small time, bumbling crooks try to pull off a caper and fall on their faces, while laughing at the absurdity and darkness bundled up with that. The script is smart and funny, with plenty of razor sharp lines and wry observations that work on multiple levels. And the shots and sequences of Tonya’s performances on the ice capture the sense of power and achievement, using the camera as her dance partner and greatest champion, showing a talent that cannot be denied to witness, even if it can be denied on score cards.
And after all of that denial, all of that rejection, all of those painful stumbles, the final scene highlights her brief but headline-grabbing boxing career. After all, that sort of physical violence is all she knows, the irony being that she doesn’t even understand the outpouring of support when Nancy Kerrigan is “hit once.” After her lifetime of violence, Tonya is too desensitized to it to comprehend what the big deal is, or where the similar sympathy is for her when all manner of authority: from her mother, to the powers that be of the skating establishment, to the police, don’t seem to care.
There’s a recurring leitmotif in I, Tonya where Tonya constantly denies that anything is her fault. There’s the implication that she’ll devolve into self-sabotage or give less-than-her-best effort and yet pass the buck for any misstep onto a conspiracy or a bias or something else that she’s not responsible for.
And yet, the only thing she publicly accepts guilt for is the one thing for which she’s truly blameless -- the people in her life. When Tonya makes her public apology, she says she had no prior knowledge of the attack, but apologize for surrounding herself with people who did and would. It’s those people -- her mother who derided her and primed her for another abuser like her husband -- who helped shape Tonya into the person so susceptible to pursuing any manner of affection and attention, while not fully comprehending the gravity of the risk and pain to be inflicted on her in the process of seeking it out.
I, Tonya is not your standard biopic. It is dark but funny, sympathetic but not hagiographic, and narrow but fulsome. It presents the story of a young woman so inured to abuse, so used to its awful presence, that she hardly recognizes it anymore, until it keeps from the things she wants most.
